Krishan L. Luthra

Dr. Luthra got his B.E. in Metallurgical Engineering from M.R. Engineering College, Jaipur in 1970, his M.Tech in Metallurgical Engineering from IIT Kanpur in 1972, and his Ph.D. in Metallurgy & Materials Science from the University of Pennsylvania, USA, in 1976. Since then he has been at GE Global Research, head quartered in Niskayuna, NY, USA, where he has had a variety of technical and management roles. From 2008 – 2010, he worked as the Global Technology Leader for Ceramic & Metallurgy Technologies, leading an organization of ~230  technologists working at sites in Niskayuna, NY, USA, Bangalore, India and Shanghai, China.  Currently, he is working as a Chief Scientist at GE Global Research.

Dr. Luthra has presented over 100 talks at conferences, over 30 of them have been invited, keynote, and plenary. He has authored over 100 technical papers, including some classic papers on high temperature oxidation and hot corrosion. Over the years, he has received tens of millions of dollars of research grants from various government agencies, including Department of Energy and NASA. He has 40 issued patents and another ~10 patents are at various stages. He is the recipient of the Coolidge award, highest honor awarded to a researcher at GE Global Research.  He is a Fellow of the American Ceramic Society.

Dr. Luthra is perhaps best known for his work on Ceramic matrix Composites (CMCs), a revolutionary materials technology that would save billions of dollars in fuel costs in aircraft engines and industrial gas turbines. Ceramists have been dreaming of using structural ceramics in industrial gas turbines and aircraft engines for over 50 years. Staring in 2016, GE has now introduced CMCs as a first commercial product in aircraft engines. Dr. Luthra’s current focus is on commercialization of CMCs and on development of next generation of CMCs. He is considered the father of CMCs at GE, and was recently profiled by Associated Press in May 2015, a story that was then published by newspapers worldwide.

http://bigstory.ap.org/article/aa2250cf429f40669204e28d6767d0cb/stubborn-ge-scientist-creates-new-fuel-saving-material#